Metalpoet - 1st Grow - Northern Lights Auto - Soil FFOF - CFL - Indoor

[MetalPoet]

Hi, Snid!
Yeah. The loss of the limb was painful...least for me, not real sure about Tilly. The thought that she might hermie crossed my mind... and I am keeping close watch... but I just think she's a survivor... chugging along with all she's got... slow but determined (hmmm... psychological projection, maybe?).
She is not going to be another Leialoha. :icon_roll She and I are both sad about that, but she's going to be a damn fine Matilda.
So Leialoha took 107 days. For Tilly that's 1st week in September. But Leialoha has been and continues to be the guide and comparison.

 

[MetalPoet]

Day 64 Recovery Continues
I had initially allowed the broken limb to lift up from a low flux in order to get that poor last bud into the light. That caused some tilting of the canopy. Took me until this morning to realize I had to let the opposite arm up a little. Fixed the tilted canopy issue but, understand, what looks like stretch is just letting her lift a little.
Extra: I did consider grafting the branch back on...I've done it successfully on some houseplants... but it was at a bad point and, since no one noticed for a few hours, it was totally wilted and it just didn't seem worthwhile.
Gnats Update: still a few maybe... yellow cards out. Fingers crossed. I don't like using any active deterrents during flower. Clearing out the interior foliage heloped I think... the can't hide now.
PICS:
Trying to show the branch lifted out of flat flux. That's my best cola now, too.

Here's a canopy shot. Most of those happy center tops are from that broken branch. She aims to please. We are just clutzes sometimes.

When and if we make it to harvest I will post a pros/cons page for uncontained indoor plants... and perhaps also the pros/cons of the single plant grow... all from the perspective of a novice.
Be well, Be happy. Love to you all.

 

[Coloradokid19]

She keeps looking better and better!! WOW! Nice to hear that the gnats are going away though, I can definitely relate and say fuck those little bastards lol. They gave me trouble too for a good while and now I finally just ordered some ladybugs. I'm gonna release them in my grow but also all around my house so they will help control stuff out there too! I don't ever wanna have too see them again haha. And did I count 18 or 19 colas? If so, pretty impressive! Anyways doing great as always MP!




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[infiniteJuan]

Oh yes, looking real nice. Go get'em MP!


Edit: Oh yeah, and my girls aren't very stinky either. Every once in a while I catch a whiff, but generally speaking I don't think the smell is very strong and the carbon filter seems to be doing a good job with whatever smell there is.

 

[Eyetim9]

Finally made it to your journal MetalPoet, dumb phone wasnt allowing me to upload pics anymore nor search for your journal. Good looking plant sucks about one of her main colas...Man from what I've read you sure did have a gnat problem this whole grow. On my organic grow (first grow period) right now I had a bad gnat problem. At first I used duct tape which worked ok, but they were persistent punks. So I used duct tape, dry spells and vacuuming the fuckers mid flight. Vacuuming worked real well for the ones that were flying and on the rib of the pots, I would tap the pots constantly to stir them up, sometimes they just kept on coming and coming so eventually I gave up vacuuming. I got some of those sticky tape fly ribbons hung one up, and it was filled up pretty fast and eventually hung up a second. And about the same time i used the fly ribbons I also used mosquito dunks, broke them up dusted the top soil and stuck chunks of the dunks in the drain holes of my pots. (the drain holes were the only thing that would evade the dry spells I was casting over the top soil) The gnats would breed there because I wouldnt let the girls get that dry where the very bottom was dry.


So...with all that said I never had visual gnat damage, I've also only read that the larva affect the roots of plants but the adults don't harm the plant...I closely monitored where I would see the gnats on my leaves and what not and could never connect them to any damage that I did see. Because I know my plants did have deficiencies but never holes like your plant did on some pictures I saw.

Anywho that's just my 2grams

One thing I'm told and read is that these plants are very resilient and can almost always bounce back.

 

[infiniteJuan]

What about an inch or two layer of sand on top of your medium? I heard that hinders fungus knats from entering or leaving the soil and therefore inhibiting them altogether.

 

[420Amard]

Sand is an option but keep in mind with a layer of sand on top on your soil it will hold moisture for longer as well making it harder to gauge when they need watering. IMHO get some of them yellow stickies and put them in and around the pots as well as make sure your plants dry out completely in between watering the drier the pots get the more the gnats won't want to live there it also kill the larva in the soil.

 

[infiniteJuan]

Sand is an option but keep in mind with a layer of sand on top on your soil it will hold moisture for longer as well making it harder to gauge when they need watering. IMHO get some of them yellow stickies and put them in and around the pots as well as make sure your plants dry out completely in between watering the drier the pots get the more the gnats won't want to live there it also kill the larva in the soil.

Ah, yes, that makes sense. I guess I'm referring more in the case of a coco grow like mine where you can water as much as you want pretty much.

Spart, I see in the bottom of your sig about the cloudy/amber trichs. Can you give any insight as to how long it might take for trichs just starting to go cloudy to go approximately 50% amber? I'm assuming that it depends on several factors but can we ballpark it? Also, if I wanted to harvest at 50% amber, at what time should I begin the final flush in order to land on that number? Cheers!

 

[dirt mcgert]

A layer of mulch or perlite is an option.

 

[MetalPoet]

She keeps looking better and better!! WOW! Nice to hear that the gnats are going away though, I can definitely relate and say fuck those little bastards lol. They gave me trouble too for a good while and now I finally just ordered some ladybugs. I'm gonna release them in my grow but also all around my house so they will help control stuff out there too! I don't ever wanna have too see them again haha. And did I count 18 or 19 colas? If so, pretty impressive! Anyways doing great as always MP!




Sent from my iPad using 420 Magazine Mobile App

Hey, CK! The gnats haven't been bad except very early on. The yellow sticky card has been out 2 days and it has 5 gnats on it. I don't see any hanging around the plant, but I swear, every bug that finds its way into the house--- housefly, moth ---- heads straight for Tilly! And I agree, the damage seems bad for a minor problem. But you know they go after the tiny new foliage. What starts as a tiny nibble on new foliage turns into a big hole as the leaf grows. I feel like I'm going to manage a break even point: they don't really wreck my harvest but I can't get rid of them completely.
Edit: I count about 18, yes...maybe more if I can expose more buds to light. she's sprouting buds EVERYWHERE!

 

[MetalPoet]

Oh yes, looking real nice. Go get'em MP!


Edit: Oh yeah, and my girls aren't very stinky either. Every once in a while I catch a whiff, but generally speaking I don't think the smell is very strong and the carbon filter seems to be doing a good job with whatever smell there is.

By the way folks, IJ has the exact same variety as I do started a week or two earlier so you can see the difference in no lst, light lst, and novice flux. IJ has healthy giants and they will finish up quicker than Tilly. But you can see how plant size can be controlled. ☆☆☆ also you may want to consider how our other variances may have affected size: lighting, medium,nutes, etc... I feel lucky to have our two grows going on at the same time.
Thanks for all the support, IJ.

 

[MetalPoet]

Finally made it to your journal MetalPoet, dumb phone wasnt allowing me to upload pics anymore nor search for your journal. Good looking plant sucks about one of her main colas...Man from what I've read you sure did have a gnat problem this whole grow. On my organic grow (first grow period) right now I had a bad gnat problem. At first I used duct tape which worked ok, but they were persistent punks. So I used duct tape, dry spells and vacuuming the fuckers mid flight. Vacuuming worked real well for the ones that were flying and on the rib of the pots, I would tap the pots constantly to stir them up, sometimes they just kept on coming and coming so eventually I gave up vacuuming. I got some of those sticky tape fly ribbons hung one up, and it was filled up pretty fast and eventually hung up a second. And about the same time i used the fly ribbons I also used mosquito dunks, broke them up dusted the top soil and stuck chunks of the dunks in the drain holes of my pots. (the drain holes were the only thing that would evade the dry spells I was casting over the top soil) The gnats would breed there because I wouldnt let the girls get that dry where the very bottom was dry.


So...with all that said I never had visual gnat damage, I've also only read that the larva affect the roots of plants but the adults don't harm the plant...I closely monitored where I would see the gnats on my leaves and what not and could never connect them to any damage that I did see. Because I know my plants did have deficiencies but never holes like your plant did on some pictures I saw.

Anywho that's just my 2grams

One thing I'm told and read is that these plants are very resilient and can almost always bounce back.

Hey, Eyetime!!!! Welcome!
Yeah. Gnats. Grrr... I've had houseplants all my life and have NEVER had such a tough time with gnats. They happen occasionally... you let the plant dry out good aND they're gone... if they hangout too long I treat the plant with systemic. I would not ever use systemic on a consumable plant though. So! You know that song by Johnny Cash "I've Been Everywhere" ? I've tried everything, man, each and everything, man. I've tried diatamaceous earth, seven, sns 203, drying out, super drying out, yellow stickies, white stickies, drenching, soil surface spraying, foliar spraying ..... wait! haven't tried the mosquito dunks yet.... or sand..... options..it's good to have options

 

[MetalPoet]

Haven't tried the ladybugs yet, either. I had a praying mantis that once made her home in my jade plant (which went outside every summer). She left a egg pod or whatever you call those things... and every Spring there would be a new batch of praying mantis. And one always hung around and made the next generation. I HATE bugs and praying mantis freak me out but after I watched that mantis wipe out a minor beetle problem in a nearby plant we developed a sympatico relationship. That went on for years.... the jade plant, huge, at the age of 24 developed a terminal illness... but I recently noticed a baby mantis on the geranium that I have kept for several years....
Anyway, yeah, lady bugs and mantis do fabulous things in the garden!
I want to say that when I say I still see damage appearing I believe the damage happened 2 weeks or so ago... you just can't see the damage utility it grows. So I might be in the clear. Fingers crossed.

 

[infiniteJuan]

By the way folks, IJ has the exact same variety as I do started a week or two earlier so you can see the difference in no lst, light lst, and novice flux. IJ has healthy giants and they will finish up quicker than Tilly. But you can see how plant size can be controlled. ☆☆☆ also you may want to consider how our other variances may have affected size: lighting, medium,nutes, etc... I feel lucky to have our two grows going on at the same time.
Thanks for all the support, IJ.

Hey hey, whatever I can do to help, MP! Thank you for your support as well! I'm currently germinating another NL auto/fem. I think she's gonna be my first flux, and this time I'm going to do a Coco Loco (on top)/Kind Soil (on bottom) medium. I'm not sure though, is a 3 gallon smart pot too small for fluxing? Maybe I should stick to the 5 gallon?

 

[MetalPoet]

Tilly is in about 2.8 gallon container and I knew it could affect her size. I'm doing 3 gallons next time because I'm sweating whether she will outgrow her space. But if I had more room I would work upwards to 5 gallon. More than that is too big, I think, for autos.

 

[MetalPoet]

Day 69 Fluxed & Flowering
Normal or not? The older fan leaves have become very dark and new foliage is lime green in the center and blue green on the edges. It's different but it might be what happens during flower.... Anyone? Here's a pic in good light, sorry it's not a level pic.

Here you can see stretch. I have been working gently and daily to clear out under her canopy.

Since I got the underside cleaned out I noticed that almost all the secondary branches come off the 3rd node flux. There are just 2 fairly puny branches coming off the second node flux.... Hmmm...Maybe top at the 4th node and flux the 3rd and 4th nodes next time.... Also, not sure what to do about the little bud nubbins... will they make any progress or should I clean those off?

The crux.
And growing bud shots.

 

[MagicJim]

Skimmed first couple of pages. I'll be back later to catch the middle acts.

NL is gonna be a nice one!

 

[420Amard]

Sure basically what you're aiming for is a even high/stone then I would say start your flush when you've hit about 20-25%% 1 in 5-6 are amber for 10 days to 2 weeks and it should be right on the money. If you want a heavy heavy stone start flushing when they are about 25-35% 1 in 3-4 are amber. Keep in mind these are just estimations and everything is strain/growing condition dependent and mostly personal preference in the end. For a day smoke I usually start to flush at about 15% 1-2 in 10 ending off at about 25-30% amber.

Ah, yes, that makes sense. I guess I'm referring more in the case of a coco grow like mine where you can water as much as you want pretty much.

Spart, I see in the bottom of your sig about the cloudy/amber trichs. Can you give any insight as to how long it might take for trichs just starting to go cloudy to go approximately 50% amber? I'm assuming that it depends on several factors but can we ballpark it? Also, if I wanted to harvest at 50% amber, at what time should I begin the final flush in order to land on that number? Cheers!

 

[Stinky Snid]

I pick off the newly created growth tips below the canopy. If it on the horizontal and just starting growth then pick it off. If it's over an inch already and/or on the vertical stem leave to grow into some decent sized buds. Once you defoliate during flower you can open up the center to allow light to them.

KiG cheers

 

[infiniteJuan]

Day 69 Fluxed & Flowering
Normal or not? The older fan leaves have become very dark and new foliage is lime green in the center and blue green on the edges. It's different but it might be what happens during flower.... Anyone? Here's a pic in good light, sorry it's not a level pic.

Here you can see stretch. I have been working gently and daily to clear out under her canopy.

Since I got the underside cleaned out I noticed that almost all the secondary branches come off the 3rd node flux. There are just 2 fairly puny branches coming off the second node flux.... Hmmm...Maybe top at the 4th node and flux the 3rd and 4th nodes next time.... Also, not sure what to do about the little bud nubbins... will they make any progress or should I clean those off?

The crux.
And growing bud shots.

Looking great. The lighter color happened during my flower stretch too. Yours looks lighter and healthier. I think I may have had some nitrogen abundance/toxicity going on with mine. My leaves were/are super dark.